Refrigeration system



J. B LACY.

REFRIGERATION SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED 050.20.1920.

1 ,404,53 1 Patented Jan. 24, 1922,

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

A TTORNEVS J. B. LACY.

REFRIGERATION SYSTEM. APPL-lCATlON FlLED DEC-20,19Z0- 1,404,531 Patented Jan. 24, 1922.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

ATTORNEYS PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN B. LACY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

REFRIGERATION SYSTEM.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented J an. 24:, 1922.

Application filed December 20, 1920. Serial No. 431,973.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN B. LACY, a subject of the King of England, and a-resident of the city of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented .a new and useful Improvement in Refrigerating Systems, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to improvementsin refrigerating systems, and it consists in the combinations, constructions and arrangements herein described and claimed.

The present invention is designed to be an improvement over that set forth in my prior Patent No. 1271482 dated July 2, 1918. In said prior patent, means was disclosed for producing a circulation of air in rooms provided with refrigerating coils. The present invention is applicable to refrigerating systems of this type, but is directed to several features not contemplated by the prior patent.

An object of my invention is to provide a system of the type mentioned, having means for controlling the humidity or the relative amount of moisture in the air of the room to be cooled.

A further object of my invention is to provide a system of the t pe described, in which the air may be purined or freed from obnoxious odors or gases.

A further object of my invention is to provide a device by means of which a circulation of air may be maintained within the room which is cooled by cooling coils or pipes, these means consisting of partitions spaced from the pipes and terminating short of the top and bottom of the room, whereby a current of air is caused to pass downwardly overthe pipes and behind the partition, and upwardly in front of the partition, means being provided for giving ready access to the cooling pipes, so as to remove the frost deposited thereon, or for inspecting the pipes, or to make repairs.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the following speecification, and the novel features of the invention will be particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, forming part of this application, in which- Figure 1 is a front view of a portion of a cooling room provided with one embodiment of my, invention.

Figure 2 is a vertical section through the dev ce,

Figure 3 is a detail view showing a door mounting,

Figure 41 is a sectional view through the slidable door construction at right angles to Figure 3,

Figure 5 is a detail view showing means for securing the partitions in place,

Figure 6 is a detail view showing the lower damper and the means for regulating the same,

Figure 7 is a detail view showing a portion of the upper damper and means for regulating the same,

Figure 8 is a sectional view through a modified form of the device as applied to overhead coils,

Figure 9 is an enlarged section along the line 9-9 of Figure 8,

Figure 10 is an enlarged section of a portion of the device shown in Figure 8, and

Figure 11 is an edge view of the upper damper shown in Figure 8.

Referring now to the drawings, I have shown therein a partition including uprights like that shown at 12 in Figures 1 and 2, these uprights having laterally extending foot portions 13 and also laterally extending cap portions 14. The uprights 12 are provided at the ends of'the sections of the partition. A description of one, therefore, will suffice for all. The foot portion 18 acts as a spacing member, and is placed with its end abutting the wall 15. The cap portion 1 1 is provided with set screws 16 which are arranged to bear on a plate 17 placed in contact with the ceiling 18 of the room. By tightening up on the set screws 16, the uprights 12 are held rigidly in position, without the necessity of using fastening devices which penetrate the ceiling, the walls, or the floor. The set screws may be set to hold the device rigidly and locked in its holding position by lock nuts, such as that shown at 19 in Figure 5.

Secured to the uprights 12 are lower brackets or braces, such as that shown at 20 in Figure 4. A bolt 21 passes through a pair of track rails 22 and 23, which are spaced apart from each other by a collar or sleeve 24 which surrounds the bolt, one of the track rails being spaced from the upright 12 by a sleeve 25, the ends of the bolt being passed through a flange 12 of right 12. The lower portion of each panel is,

' provided with rollers 33, which are set into shown in Figure 2.

recesses and which bear upon the track rails 22-and 23, as clearly shown in the drawing. It will thus be seen that a partition is formed, consisting of a series of doors or sliding panels, any one of which may be moved relatively to the adjacent door or panel to permit access to the pipes 3 1, which are disposed between the partition and the wall 15, as

Pivotally mounted at 35 on the guide member 27 is a draft regulator or damper which consists of a fiat plate 36. This damper is shown as fully open in Figure 2,, but it may beswung upwardly toward the ceiling, and is held in adjusted positions by means of an inclinedbar 37 which is rigidly secured at one end, to the upright 12. As will be seen from Figure 7, .a removable pin or bolt 38 may be placed'in openings 39 in the bar 37 to hold the damper 36 in its adjusted positions.

In the space underneath the cooling pipes 34.- is a damper 40 which is hinged at 41 to a bar 42 carried by the foot piece 13. The free end of the damper 40 is connected by a pivoted arm 13, whose lower end is adapted to receive abolt or pin 14 which may be placed inany of the openings 45 in the bar 42 to support the damper in any of its adjusted positions This damper may be swung upwardly, as shown in dotted lines in Figure 7 so as to close off the bottom of the space behind the partition completely, or it may be placed so that the damper will be nclined, to cause a forward movement of the air descending between the partition and the wall, as will be explained later.

From the foregoing description of the variousparts ofthe device, the operation thereof may be readily understood. I11 my prior patent, I disclosed a device of the same generalnature, but with no means for closing off the space between the partition and the wall, for permitting access to the pipes. The pipes 34 are cooled in any suitable manner, and the air in the immediate vicinity is chilled and tends to condense and pass down wardly due to its greater density. This causes a circulation of the air from the center of the room above the partition, and clownwardly over the cooling pipes. By regulating the distance ofthe free end of the upper damper 36 from the ceiling, the velocity of the air-may be controlled. I have found however that by adjusting thelower damper 40 the humidity, or the relative amount of moisture inthe air, may also be controlled. lVhen the lower damper is closed, or very nearly.so, thus slowing up the current of air passing the coils, the humidity in the room will be greater than when the lower damper is open to permit a free flow ofthe'cooled airfrom behind the partition, underneath the same, into-the room. hen the lower damper is closed entirely, the cooled air surrounding the pipes appears to bank up and flow over the top of the partition, the moisture laden air depositing its moisture on the ceiling. In

actual practice of course, it is not desirable to do this, but the lower damper maybe so regulated as to increase or decrease-the humidity to any desired points within limits; F or certain'articlesa more humid atmosphere is necessary, while for others,'a drier atmosphere is necessary, and by regulating the lower damper the humidity may be 'controlled. Y

I have also found that while the warmer portion of the air current, i. e., that passing over the top ofthe partition, maycontain foul air and odors, the cooledair coming from underneath the partition is relatively pure. This purification appears to be in the 7 nature of a physical change, and is probably due to the absorption of noxious'vapors and gases by the water of condensation, It has been found by experiment that noxious. fumes,such as those from the plumbers char-.

coal furnace, may be removed from the air, and the latter rendered comparatively pure,

by the use of the construction which forms the subject of this application, so thatthe parative comfort, whereas they were overcome by fumes under similar circumstances,

workmen can continue their work 1n com- One of the objections to the use of pantie tions heretofore for causing a circulation'of air was the fact that these partitions, being usually set close to the pipes, i. e., within twelve inches or so of the wall, prevented the access to the pipes for the purpose of removing the deposit of frost, or access for repairing the pipes when necessary. In the present construction, however, this difficultyv is obviated by the use of sliding panels, whiehmay be moved to permit access to any'portion of the pipes, and again closed to constitute a partition, which will cause the flow of air in the manner described. This one feature renders the present device es ecially desir-h a proper humidity may be attained, and at the same time the deposit of moisture on the pipes may be reduced. In one instance in which my improved system was installed, a refrigerator 10 ft. by 13 ft. by 8 ft. was kept at a temperature of 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and the pipes did not require scraping or defrosting for more than six months after installation.

In Figure 8 I have shown a vertical section of a cooling room, in which the cooling pipes 46 are disposed at the top of the room, instead of at the side. Below the cooling pipes are rafters, like that shown at 47. These rafters support a partition which consists of sections composed of wood strips 48 and insulating material 49, such as fiber. The sections rest on brackets 50 secured to the rafter 47 (see Figure 9). Above each raft-er is a projecting strip consisting of a wood upper portion 51 and an insulating lower portion 52 of fiber or other suitable material. The upper surfaces of the member 51 are protected by a metal sheathing 53, whose edges overlap the upturned edges of drip pans 54 disposed above the partitions and between the rafters. At one end of the partition is disposed a strip 55 which bears U-shaped guides 56 for the lower portions of slidable doors 57 and 58 respectively. The upper portions of these doors are held between guide strips 59 and 60 respectively, carried by pipes or bars 61 and 62 which pass through a plate, such as that shown at 63, at each end. The plate 63 is secured to an arm 64 which is hinged at 65 to a bracket 66, carried by the rafter 47 at each end. This rafter bears an upright 68 which is curved in arcuate form and provided with openings 69. The plate 63 also has an opening 70 through which a pin may be passed. This construction permits the bodily movement of the plates 63 when the pins 7 O are withdrawn, the bottoms of the slidable doors pivoting on their guide sockets or grooves 56, so that the space between the Wall and the ends of the doors may be adjusted to control the air current, and at the same time to permit the doors to slide past one another, so as to afford a good access to the pipes for scraping them or repairing them.

At 71, I have shown a damper, whose position may be regulated by means of an arm 72 held by a pin in the perforations 73 in the strip 74, similar to that described in connection with Figure 2.

This form of the device operates substantially the same as that disclosed in Figures 1 and 2. In this particular instance, however, the air entering at the right hand side of Figure 8 passes over the pipes and downwardly on the left hand side, being con- .trolled by the damper 71 which regulates the humidity in the manner already described. By tilting the doors to the proper angle, the space between the doors and the wall may be regulated so as to cause a current of air to flow at the desired velocity over the pipes. The provision of the drip pans above the partition keeps the latter dry, and the water of condensation is conveyed off by means of a gutter 75, or in any other suitable manner.

I claim:

In a refrigerating system, a cooling room, cooling pipes disposed therein near one wall, apartition, terminating short of the floor and ceiling of the room to define air passages above and below the partition, between said cooling pipes and the main body portion of the room, said partition comprising vertical supports, each having a channel iron at its lower and upper ends, the lower iron being adapted to rest on the floor and to abut the adjacent wall, a ceiling plate, set screws carried by said upper channel iron and adapted to engage said ceiling plate, whereby each support is held in position, an adjustable damper carried above the partition, and a second adjustable damper disposed below said partition, said dampers being adapted to close the space between said partition and the wall.

JOHN B. LACY. 

